this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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Why are people disconnecting or destroying their Ring cameras? (www.usatoday.com)
submitted 11 hours ago by spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
126 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A Super Bowl ad for Ring security cameras boasting how the company can scan neighborhoods for missing dogs has prompted some customers to remove or even destroy their cameras.

Online, videos of people removing or destroying their Ring cameras have gone viral. One video posted by Seattle-based artist Maggie Butler shows her pulling off her porch-facing camera and flipping it the middle finger.

Butler explained that she originally bought the camera to protect against package thefts, but decided the pet-tracking system raised too many concerns about government access to data.

"They aren't just tracking lost dogs, they're tracking you and your neighbors," Butler said in the video that has more than 3.2 million views.

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[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 3 points 16 minutes ago

my next door neighbor has a camera that seems to look like a ring... I mean I'm not gonna approach their door for no reason to check if it is a ring, but like... if it is a ring... then oh well, NSA is right by my door.

And I'm in a deep blue city btw... neighbor is a renter and is Black, so.... yeah... minority working class inadvertantly have a spy camera on their door

Front door is like right next to each other... like the camera can see me walking in the the path into my own house, it makes a sound when it detects movement and I heard the sound thing trigger even when walking only on my side of the yard

...And my family are immigrants...

so yay, our movements are probably in an ICE database

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

I honestly didn't know what they were thinking with that commercial. Why would you proudly advertise that you've built a massive surveillance network, during one of the most-watched yearly televised events too for that matter? Did they seriously believe that there wouldn't be a major backlash? I mean I appreciate the blunt honesty in that commercial so I'll give them credit for that.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 4 points 29 minutes ago (1 children)

I honestly didn't know what they were thinking with that commercial. Why would you proudly advertise that you've built a massive surveillance network

Presumably because most end users are in deep with the "if you do nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about" crowd ... and besides it can find a lost dog /s.

They brought these sorts of intrusive cameras in the first place so privacy was not top of mind, or even in 2nd or 3rd place.

[–] kieron115@startrek.website 1 points 20 minutes ago

I would also put a good bit of the blame on executives and marketing people being way out of touch with the average person.

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 2 points 34 minutes ago* (last edited 34 minutes ago)

Why anyone ever thinks empowering psychopathic companies is ever a good idea is beyond me. They ALWAYS fuck us over. Every damn time.

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 11 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

My only regret is that I can't smash one because was never stupid enough to trust these things to begin with.

[–] Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 3 points 39 minutes ago* (last edited 38 minutes ago)

Don't buy one just so you can smash it! I know it's satisfying to hear the plastic crack and see its tiny lens pop free like a smooshed eyeball. Yeah. That I guess would be good. But don't.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

My friend, have you heard of Flock cameras?

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Yes and I hate them cause it's a pain in the ass having to route all my drives around them. Some routes take me 3x as long as they should cause of that stupid privacy-invading bullshit.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 2 points 43 minutes ago

Well, I wouldn't suggest doing crimes to physically break them, but you can break their little AI brains with a bit of adversarial noise and someone with a printer that can print on some sort of clear backing.

Benn Jordan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp9MwZkHiMQ

[–] BigTrout75@lemmy.world 1 points 20 minutes ago

Cancel prime too

[–] mlg@lemmy.world 37 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

My personal choice for security stuff is ubiquiti, but I'm sure someone here can find a super cheap doorbell camera that saves to an SD card and accomplishes the same thing.

I'm really glad people didn't just fall over for this ad, and connected the dots on what Amazon is doing

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

I'm sure many did, sadly.

[–] AspieEgg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 5 hours ago (3 children)

Reolink doorbell cameras don’t need to be connected to the cloud. They can record to an SD card or upload to an FTP server. You can connect to them with RTSP and run your own NVR if you want too.

[–] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 8 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

+1 for Reolink. I have those and UniFi cameras tied to my UniFi system.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

I have a few Amcrest cameras and they're pretty decent as well. Outdoor rated, PoE, 4k, UV LEDs, they have PTZ variants too and offer standard RTSP streams without any kind of vendor software hassle.

Running a local NVR with some image segmentation and classification models is goodbut also consider adding a bit of Kismet and SDR trickery. Having a bit more awareness is always useful and the radio spectrum is increasingly full of useful information that can be relevant to home security.

Most people are also radio beacons of some form or another due to their tech/car/flipper zero and being able to detect things like modern cars, people wearing bluetooth earbuds, wifi deauthentication attacks or new radio sources which could indicate some kind of hostile surveillance or tracking... those are all useful and relatively simple things to monitor. With a bit more money you could make some good estimates about the location and relative motion of these sources.

You could also add some cheap SDRs and listen to your local county's dispatch trunking system. This is perfectly legal, it's all broadcast in the clear. CB users and scanner owners used to do this but it became harder once they switched to trunking systems because you required some kind of processor to navigate the trunking protocol. Now you can do the same thing with 2 cheap RTL-SDRs and some open source software: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9KJrtIO8_4 Language models reading transcripts of these could alert you to any major events near you, like a traffic accident (or active shooting, USA! USA! USA!).

Obviously this is a bit more involved than 'Press buy button on Amazon, login to camera, glue to wall.', but the end product that you can create is better than anything that you can buy as a commercial product.

[–] melfie@lemy.lol 2 points 3 hours ago

I have multiple Reolink cameras and highly recommend them.

[–] Bongles@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Hmm yes, I understand some of these acronyms. /s

[–] AspieEgg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

SD - Secure Digital (memory card you’d use for most things) FTP - File Transfer Protocol (a way to upload files to a server) RTSP - Real Time Streaming Protocol (a way to stream video) NVR - Network Video Recorder (a device that records video)

[–] Atropos@lemmy.world 7 points 3 hours ago

I love lemmy. On the other site, you'd have 100 snarky and/or insulting replies. Here, there's a single reply that is straightforward and helpful.

I dunno, thanks for being a bright spot in otherwise somewhat bleak world.

[–] 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip 63 points 8 hours ago (5 children)

the problem with these fucking things is that you can't really opt out. even if you don't buy your own, some neighbours will happily buy and install the big brother to watch you from their porch and there is very little you can do about it.

same as you can't really escape the google, even if you don't use single one of their service, there is always the other part to any communication you are having...

[–] johntash@eviltoast.org 2 points 2 hours ago

Maybe we all need to start wearing clothes with bright infrared leds lining them?

[–] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 16 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Exactly. I never used Gemini or gave sensitive information/photos to major AI companies, but my family has, including photos of me.

[–] Pupscent@lemmy.ca 12 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I've never had a Facebook account. I've always hated when people posted pictures I was in and said who I was.

[–] SlimePirate@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 hours ago

Meta algorithms have ghost profiles, including dead people or babies not yet born

[–] jambudz@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Break it. Do crime. Do it.

[–] 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip 3 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

break it and be recorded on their camera breaking it. that will end well.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 hours ago

Tell me without telling me that you've never needed the police to do anything useful.

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[–] teft@piefed.social 204 points 11 hours ago (7 children)

I hope what really gets people to pay attention is how the FBI said they searched that news ladies' moms' ring camera footage even though she didn't have an active subscription.

[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 131 points 10 hours ago (22 children)

It was a NEST camera from Google, which is only a meaningful distinction because it means they ALL do this shit.

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[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 31 points 8 hours ago (9 children)

My wife and I recently moved to a home with ring cameras preinstalled, but no subscription of course. We can only access a live feed via the cloud service. I told my wife, I don’t think it matters whether we have a subscription or not… if they want to use the footage from our home cameras for any reason at all, it’s in their power to do so. They can save it, scan it, watch it, … they don’t even need to save the video, they can save results from a scan to get out the important details more efficiently.

My wife didn’t want to hear it. She said we aren’t paying them, so there’s nothing they can do. Then this news story dropped about Google Nest. I showed my wife. We no longer have the ring cameras.

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[–] Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 hours ago

how the company can scan neighborhoods for missing dogs

Hilarious. Thanks for making me laugh.

[–] xSikes@feddit.online 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Why hasn’t everyone done this to their any cloud services door bell?

[–] winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 hours ago

People are sheep

[–] dukemirage@lemmy.world 71 points 11 hours ago (8 children)

If your stupid gadget needs a separate proprietary app that demands internet access, anticipate that all data is shared for all kinds of shady business.

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[–] Octagon9561@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 hours ago

Because they're wiretaps. Insane that it took this long for people to understand this.

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